Summary
Thrombomodulin is an endothelial cell surface receptor for thrombin. It plays an important
role in the regulation of blood coagulation by decreasing thrombin activity and activating
protein C. This study examined the possible association between the thrombomodulin
-33G/A polymorphism and acute myocardial infarction. We recruited 278 patients (mean
age 57.5 years, 241 men) with documented myocardial infarction and 450 age-and sex-matched
control subjects. Polymerase chain reaction and single-strand conformation polymorphism
was used to define the thrombomodulin -33G/A polymorphism. The frequency of the thrombomodulin
GA+AA genotype among patients with myocardial infarction was higher than that in control
subjects (22.7% vs. 16.2%, odds ratio [OR] 1.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0 to
2.2). The -33G/A polymorphism (GA+AA genotype) was significantly associated with myocardial
infarction (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.5) as was hypertension, diabetes mellitus and
smoking. Among young myocardial infarction patients (age ≤45 years, n = 72), the frequency
of -33G/A polymorphism was more significantly higher than that in control subjects
(29.2% vs. 16.2%, OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.8). The -33G/A polymorphism (OR 2.3, 95%
CI 1.3 to 4.1) and smoking (OR 4.5, 95% CI 2.5 to 7.9) were the only independent risk
factors for young myocardial infarction. Furthermore, among patients who did not smoke,
the polymorphism was associated with a nonsignificant increase in the risk of young
myocardial infarction (OR 1.9, 95% CI 0.6 to 5.6); whereas, in the presence of smoking,
the increase was statistically significant (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.2 to 4.7). Smoking carriers
of the thrombomodulin -33G/A polymorphism had a nearly 10-fold increased risk of young
myocardial infarction (OR 9.8, 95% CI 4.3 to 22.4) when compared with nonsmoking non-carriers.
We concluded that there was a significant association between the thrombomodulin -33G/A
polymorphism and myocardial infarction in our population, especially in young patients.
The clinical effect of this genetic factor was enhanced by smoking.
Keywords
Myocardial infarction - polymorphism - smoking